Sierra Summers
by penofjade
Summary: Sixteen year old Sierra Summers has always been surrounded by the abnormal. Her house is full of Slayers-in-training, after all. What she never expected was for her mom to have quite so many skeletons in the closet. And one's back...he's her dad.
1. Chapter 1

a/n: Sorry folks, the chapters got messed up a little when I uploaded them, so I'm working on getting it all straightened out. Please be patient with me! Thanks!

Sierra Summers crawled into bed at a quarter to four, dreading the knowledge that she would have to get up again in three hours to get ready for school. She kept telling her mom that she really should just start a school for the Slayers It would save everyone a whole lot of hassle. But Buffy was very firm about making sure that the girls didn't stand out too much in their small Arizona town. Standing out in some ways was to be avoided at all costs. Sierra always quirked an eyebrow here and replied, "You work in a magic shop, you live in a house with over twenty girls, you can throw a grown man across the room, and you think home schooling us is going to make us stand out?" Buffy would just roll her eyes and tell her to stop being sarcastic.

The few hours of sleep passed quickly and before she had even begun to dream, her Aunt Willow was knocking on her door, telling her it was time for school. When the older red head didn't get any sort of response from the lump that was Sierra, she walked to the window and yanked back the curtains. Sierra didn't like the sun. She always had to wear sunglasses when she was out in it, just because of her extra sensitive eyes. She was also very pale, so she would get evil sunburns if she wasn't careful. Living in Arizona didn't seem to help matters any, though. When the sun entered the room, Sierra did what her Aunt Dawn called her "wet cat impression". Willow chuckled, reiterated what she had said about school, and left the room. Sierra hissed after her. Sierra was not a morning person.

Standing a few minutes later in front of the bathroom mirror, she grimaced. She ran her hands through her short brown hair, only succeeding in messing up the already mussed pixie cut even more. Her blue eyes looked back at her, tired and slightly bloodshot. She knew that some at school thought she had a drinking problem, based on how often she came to school with eyes that were red. Buffy had never said anything to her daughter, but Sierra was pretty sure that the principal had even approached her once about it. Brushing her teeth quickly, she slapped on a little eyeliner and lip gloss and hurried out of the room. She didn't like looking at herself in the mirror She didn't see her mother in her hardly at all, and she didn't know who her father had been. Seeing so many features that had to have come from him was a little disconcerting. She hadn't asked about him in years, and the last time she had her mother had gotten this weird look on her face, almost as if she were going to cry. Buffy didn't cry, though, so that was out.

Yawning so wide that she thought her jaw was going to break, she made it to the kitchen without running into anything. Several of the other girls who lived in the house and were her fellow Slayers had beat her to the table, but she was glad to see that she was not the last one there. Her string of nights was almost over for the month, and she couldn't have been happier. She wanted to be able to sleep for a solid eight hours again. She might have been a natural night owl, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate sleep, too.

She had just sat down to a bowl of cereal when Buffy walked in, her face pale and drawn. Everyone in the room froze. Something was wrong, and they didn't need to see the faces of Xander and Dawn behind her to know they weren't going to like it. Sierra, never one to waste food, ate her cereal while waiting to hear what new Big Bad had entered the picture this time. If it was big enough and bad enough she might not get those long nights of sleep after all, and she was not pleased with that thought.

One of the other girls, an Asian named Lita, was the first to ask. "What happened? Is there a new Big Bad in town?"

Buffy looked at her and then glanced around at the faces of the other teens watching her. She stopped, however, when she reached Sierra. "No," she replied, her eyes skittering away. "Not a new one. An old one. One I thought I'd never see again."

Sierra's eyes widened. She had seen her mother fight Big Bads, and she knew that there was no way she would ever let one go! That just wasn't Buffy. Therefore, this was a revelation that truly shocked the woman's daughter.

"Who is he?" asked Paula, a pale Goth from Sacramento, "How did he get away from you last time?"

Buffy seemed to get a little nervous, her gaze darting from the girls, to Sierra, to the kitchen window. Sierra began to get the sinking feeling in her stomach that something she was about to learn would undoubtedly be of a very important nature. And those sorts of things were never good for her sleep pattern...


	2. Chapter 2

Buffy had refused to say anything at the kitchen table about the new Big Bad. Something about there not being enough information yet. Sierra snorted as she drove home with the other high school aged Slayers. Staring out the window, her sunglasses firmly in place, she mused on what could have her mother so upset. Upset enough even to lock herself into her room with Dawn and Willow all afternoon, if what the phone call home at lunch proved anything. Uncle Xander was quick to assure Sierra and the other girls that Buffy was fine, she was just thinking through some things at the moment.

Walking into the large Victorian, Sierra was shocked with how quiet the place was. She didn't think her home had ever been that devoid of noise in living memory. Slayers were not known for their subduedness, and she sometimes thought that being the loudest in the house was some sort of goal.

Buffy still hadn't left her room, though Willow was now sitting at the kitchen island, nursing a cup of tea that was probably laced with something a little stronger. When the older woman saw Sierra, she motioned her over. When Sierra reached her side, Willow sighed and leaned slightly towards her. "Your mother has been in her room all day. She's fine, but she's going through some stuff from her past. When Dawn comes down, you can go up. I think she'll have some stuff to talk to you about."

Sierra had been thinking about Buffy's reactions that morning all day, so she had a pretty good idea about where some of that discussion was going to lead. She was either going to find out that this Big Bad had killed her father, or that he was her father. Either way, she could see no true good side to that equation. No matter how you put it, her father had either been killed, or was a supernatural killer. How did that make anything any better?

Waiting for Dawn to come downstairs didn't take too long. Standing in the doorway of her mother's room, however, seemed to take an eternity. Buffy was sitting in the middle of her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, her head resting on them. Sierra heard a muted sigh before Buffy's head came up. Their eyes met, one pair blue, the other green.

Buffy had been crying. Sierra, who had never, ever seen her mother sniffle, let alone full blown cry, was more than a little taken aback. How did one deal with a mother who had always at least seemed so strong, but who was even then falling apart in front of you? Sierra had no idea!

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she looked her mother straight in the eye and did one of the things she did best: be blunt. "Did this Big Bad kill my father, or is he my father?"

Buffy's eyes got big, and just stared at the calm face of her daughter as though she had sprouted two new heads and they were both making funny faces. "I love you Sierra, and I want you to know that." That was all Buffy said for several minutes. When she spoke again, any hesitation was gone. She seemed to have latched onto Sierra's acceptance, gaining strength from it.

"He was there in Sunnydale with all of us. He was there before my mother died...She would fix him hot chocolate with little marshmallows...He really liked those, is what she told me when I questioned her and he protected Dawn when I couldn't and he and Xander never got along and somewhere between punching him and kissing him senseless, I fell in love. He was the one wearing the amulet that destroyed the Hell Mouth in Sunnydale. He _died_ there! But he's back...He was seen _here_, in Conner. He has hair died platinum blond, he has blue eyes, and he always wears a leather trench coat. He made me feel loved...He was the only one to ever do that after I fully accepted my Slayer responsibilities. Everyone else tried, but I was numb. When they brought me back, I hated them. I had been in Heaven! He made me feel again...He made me open my heart. And when I told him, before I left him to die for us, that I loved him, he just smiled sadly and said, 'No, you don't. But thanks for saying it.' He didn't believe me and now he's back and you look so much like him and he's going to know that you're his, but he thinks that I don't love him!..."

Sierra had sat quietly through her mothers flood of words. Taking it all in as calmly as possible, Sierra asked what, to her, seemed an obvious question. "What's his name?"

Buffy smiled sadly and said, "Spike. His name's Spike. When he was human, it was William, but no one ever calls him that anymore. No, it's just Spike."

Sierra now had a name to go with her looks. She looked like Spike. He was her father. He had been a Big Bad who had taken the time to get to know her mother. He had sacrificed himself to close the Sunnydale Hell Mouth. And he was her father. And he was in Conner, Arizona. She wanted to meet him, but at the same time, she wasn't so sure. How would he react to finding that he had a sixteen year old daughter? She didn't want to know the sting of rejection, especially from the person she had been longing to know for years. Should she encourage her mother to tell this faceless name? Or should she ask to go somewhere else for awhile so that he would never have to meet her? She could always ask to visit her Uncle Giles in England...That had been fun the last time. Question being, could she actually enjoy her time there knowing what was here at home?

Now she knew why her mother hadn't left her room all day. Sierra was only thinking about a fraction of the things her mother was surely pondering. That, and there were plenty of memories to relive, where her father was concerned.

She was happy to hear, however, that he had changed from being a Big Bad into something else. She didn't know how she felt about her mother being with a Big Bad when he was still all vampirey and stuff...Just didn't seem like her mother, she supposed, but, then again, she had learned several new things about her mother in just the last few minutes...Interesting how quickly a lifelong held perception of something or someone could be completely destroyed in a matter of mere seconds, wasn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

Sierra had left Buffy alone with her thoughts, instinctually seeming to know that her mother needed to come to her own conclusions about what to do. It wasn't for any of the rest of them to decide. He may have been Sierra's father, but first and foremost, he had been the one person Buffy had ever truly given her heart to.

Sierra joined her Aunt Willow at the island in the kitchen, watching the sky darken through the window. Neither she nor Willow spoke, just sitting and enjoying the silence. They were both like that, quiet for the most part...thinkers. Sierra had often wondered what it would have been like to live a life as something other than a Slayer. What would she become if she had the option of anything?

She found herself pondering that as she focused on nothing. Turning inward, she allowed her face to grow blank. She now understood some of what was different about her: the sensitive eyes, the pale skin...They came from her father, who was a Vampire. As to the logistics of how she had even been conceived, she was completely at a lose for words.

Later that night Sierra let herself out into the small backyard behind the large house. She had gone to bed somewhat early, but had been unable to sleep for very long. She had lain there for awhile, watching the shadows dance across her room.

Finally giving up on sleep, she had gotten up and made her way quietly through the house, careful not wake up any of the sleeping inhabitants. When she had reached the swing set that was located in the backyard, she perched on one of the swings. Sitting on the same swing she had swung on since she was a child, she pushed off the ground.

Buffy had gone to bed before any of the rest of them, not telling anyone what she had decided to do. Sierra wasn't sure how she would respond to her mother's choice when she learned what it was.

As she was swinging, she heard a rustle in the bushes to her left. Glancing in that direction, she saw a head of platinum blond hair. Her legs froze in mid swing, and she quickly slowed. Before the swing had completely stopped moving, however, she had leapt from it, keeping her eyes locked onto the intruder.

It was him! Spike...Her father. She didn't know what to do. Should she say something to him? Should she go back inside? He hadn't been invited, so he couldn't follow her...At that moment, however, she saw another person emerge from the bushes. Buffy!

Sierra, who had been taking small, slow steps towards the house, stopped in her tracks. What in the hell? Why was her mother bringing him here? Was that her decision? To tell him everything? What if she hadn't wanted him to know? What about her?

Her eyes got sharp and brittle as they focused on her mother's face. To be treated like such a child...she wanted to spit! She hadn't even been considered adult enough to make her own decision in this. And she knew, beyond any doubt, that her mother had told him...She could see it in the way he was looking at her. His eyes slitted and focused, as though attempting to see into her very soul.

Sierra didn't offer him the time of day. She kept her gaze locked on her mother. Buffy's eyes were bright and slightly red, as though she had been crying. But Sierra didn't feel any sorrow for her mother at the moment. All she felt was deep, hot anger. Her future where her father was concerned had already been decided for her, and she was not happy!

Buffy tried to smile at her daughter, but the attempt faltered when she realized that Sierra was not going to reciprocate. All through the silent exchange between mother and daughter, Spike had stayed blessedly quiet. He was still studying the young woman who, he had learned just minutes before, was his daughter.

She had his hair and his eyes and even, to some degree, his facial structure. Her eyes may have been focused on Buffy, but even without looking straight into them he could see the intelligence and the wisdom. She had learned quite a bit from her short life. He wanted desperately to say something to her, anything that would show her how he felt about the knowledge of a daughter...However, he was intuitive enough to realize that the moment probably wasn't quite right for something like that.

Buffy had told him that her name was Sierra...He had grimaced at her and said, "Good grief woman! Couldn't you have named her something relatively normal like Anne or Louisa or Mary? Did you have to continue the tradition of names that make you want to ask if that's a nickname?" Now, however, he found himself liking the name the Slayer had given their daughter...It was feminine but had power behind it, just like Buffy and, it would seem, just like his daughter.

The girl finally spoke, her voice abrupt and clipped. "What if I didn't want him to know? Why didn't you ask me first? This should have been my choice, too!"

Buffy, he noticed looked slightly taken aback at the outburst. He assumed that she hadn't anticipated this sort of response from her daughter. Spike decided to step in and so spoke, "Did you not want me to know then, precious?"

Sierra's eyes finally swung to meet his and he felt a shock run through him. They weren't just similar to his eyes, which was what he had been expecting. They _were_ his eyes. And they stared at him, wide and unblinking, as she sized him up. He could tell that she really didn't want to speak to him at all, but had been too well trained to completely ignore him. "What I wanted was to have a say! I was not consulted at all on this and I want to know why!"

With that exclamation, her gaze swung back to her mother, who looked as though she were about to begin crying again. "Don't yell at your mother," Spike said, stepping forward to wrap his arm around the Slayer.

Sierra's eyes swung back to him, apparently incredulous at his interruption. "You have no authority to tell me what to do, and I will thank you to remember that! She made a decision for me and I want to know what her reasoning was! You play only a slight role in this drama at the moment, so back down Don Quixote! I am one windmill you do not want to fight right now!"


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Well, the formatting finally got figured out for this story, and here's the next chapter. I wanted to get some interaction going between Sierra and Spike, and this seemed a good way to achieve that. Also, I wanted to showcase a little more of Sierra's brand of humor. Hope you like!

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><p>Before Buffy could explain anything to her, Dawn burst out of the house. Running towards them, she stopped in front of Buffy and said, breathing heavily. "You need to come. <em>Right now<em>."

Buffy took a deep breath and turned towards her younger sister and said, "What's happened?"

"We aren't exactly sure, but it's not good, whatever it is. We think there might be a few young vampires running around biting anything they can get their hands on. And by a few, I mean _we need you_."

Buffy nodded her head and, glancing between Spike and Sierra, said in her 'I am the Slayer and you will do as I say voice,' "Sierra, I know you aren't happy with me right now, but I'm telling you to stay here and talk to your father."

With that declaration, she hurried after Dawn, who had already retreated back into the house. Sierra could only stare, slightly openmouthed, after the older woman. Had she just been told to talk to her father? Boy, did that sound weird…

"Umm…" came the voice of the blonde vampire.

"Look, I honestly don't hold anything against you, but understand this, I don't appreciate having something this important decided for me," Sierra crossed her arms as she spoke, looking towards the trees to his left. "Besides, I only found out about you earlier today. I haven't really had time to acclimate to the idea that I _have_ a father, let alone that he was a Big Bad."

Spike gestured toward the bench in Aunt Willow's flower garden. Sighing, she followed him over and sat down. He leaned forward, his arms balanced on his legs. "If I'd known about you, Sierra, I would have come after Buffy much quicker than I did."

"I don't blame you for not knowing. If it weren't for the fact that I have the same last name as her, no one would actually know I'm related. For all they know, I'm a cousin or a niece or something. After all, I don't look anything like her."

Spike turned to look at her, checking off her features in his head again. "You have her nose…and her chin."

"What?" Sierra asked, looking at him as though he'd just told her he liked to wear pink sequins.

"I know my face, and I know Buffy's. Most of you is me, but a few things, lucky you, come from your mom. My nose on a woman would just be sad…"

Sierra found herself chuckling at his self-deprecating humor. As the quiet stretched out, she sighed and said, "I know I shouldn't have yelled at her like that…I'm running on too little sleep, too much stress, and not enough caffeine. This was not a good time for her to drop a bomb on me."

At that moment, the back door swung open again, although this time it was one of the freshmen who stuck her head out. "Sierra, you out-" she didn't finish her sentence. Seeing Spike, her eyes grew wide until Buffy's daughter thought she was purposefully trying to remove them from her head. "VAMPIRE!" yelled the girl, leaping off the back porch and pulling out a stake as she did so.

Sierra rolled her eyes and stood up to get between the girl and her father. That still sounded weird, even in her own head. Shaking herself, she focused on the newbie. "Carmen, stop it."

"But it's a-"

"I know what he is, Carmen."

"Then why are you-"

"Buffy knows he's hear, and when she gets back, I'm sure she'll explain everything. Now go back inside and tell everyone to stop scrambling and to put the weapons back where they belong."

Carmen, her eyes still darting back and forth between Spike and Sierra, did as she was told. However, when she reached the steps to the porch, she paused and looked back. She had a quizzical expression on her face as she said, "He looks familiar…Like I've seen him somewhere before." Shrugging, the girl reached the door and closed it behind her.

Sierra reached up and ran her hands through her hair a few times. "No kidding, genius," she muttered under her breath. "You've seen me everyday since you got here."

She heard Spike chuckle behind her, but she ignored him. She'd realized, while dealing with Carmen, that she couldn't take him into the house until Buffy came back and got them. There was no way she was going to try and explain his relationship without her mother, the head honcho Slayer, to back her up. There were too many sharp, pointy objects in that house for his own good. And wouldn't that just thrill Buffy, her long-lost love come back from the dead only to be killed by her own trainees in a fit of overzealousness.

Sitting back down on the bench, she decided to at least do something productive while they waited. "So," she said, looking up at the stars, "where've you been all these years?"

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><p>Hope it meets with all your approvals. Reviews help make the world go round ^.^<p> 


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